CC/E reviews mid-year enrollment numbers

Ongoing enrollment concerns highlighted Superintendent Kevin Wood's mid-year report Monday night during Clay Central/Everly's school board meeting.

Wood shared K-6 enrollment figures from the past four years, which showed an 18-student decline from 61 in 2021-22 to 43 this year. The district recently combined grades 3-4 and 5-6 due to small class sizes in an effort to give those students better peer-to-peer interactions and bank General Fund savings on staff salaries.

Wood called the move to multi-grade classrooms "perfect timing" in light of the enrollment dip. Still, he said the district needed to increase student numbers long term.

"The hope is to get those numbers up," he said. "We talk about butts in seats all the time."

Wood noted the district remains on solid financial ground with a growing unspent balance in recent years.

"It's good to see that increase," he said. "Fiscally, we're doing well. We need to keep that number up and not have any big, drastic changes to our budget."

Wood said the district is continually engaging in student recruitment and retention efforts.

"Current trends indicate we need to continue these efforts until enrollment numbers show improvement," he said. "The situation will be closely monitored, and if numbers decline further, we'll just have other discussions."

Wood reported 12 students are currently enrolled in the 3- and 4-year-old preschool.

"Having a group like that is certainly going to help [K-6 enrollment] as they move up," he said.

The superintendent was pleased with CC/E's classroom achievement numbers and said students are continuing to improve academically.

"We attribute that to small class sizes and all the work being done within the building," he said.

Wood also reviewed the district's five-year tax levy, which is relatively low compared to the state average of $13.25-$13.30: $8.54 (20-21), $8.05 (21-22), $8.77 (22-23), $8.44 (23-24) and $8.43 (24-25).

• Board appointments, committees

In other business, the board approved annual appointments for the coming year.

Board members Denny Dalen and Allison Goyette were voted president and vice president, respectively. Committee assignments were unchanged: Barb Trierweiler/Goyette, building and grounds; Goyette/Dalen, negotiations; Allyn Heikens/Amber Campbell, school improvement; Dalen, transportation.

State Bank & Insurance in Everly and Home State Bank in Royal were named the official district depositories. The Hartley Sentinel-The Everly/Royal News was named the official newspaper. Steve Avery was named official school legal counsel with Ahlers Law Firm landing secondary legal counsel designation.

The board will continue to meet on the Wednesday after the fourth Monday of each month at 6 p.m., in the music room.